Accountant Sentenced on Tax Charges

An Oregon accountant and tax preparer has been sentenced to 60 months’ probation and up to 180 days in a halfway house after he pleaded guilty to tax charges.

Morris Mohammed Yasavolian was sentenced last Tuesday after pleading guilty last June to a charge of making and subscribing a false tax return. As part of his plea agreement, he also agreed to pay a $5,000 fine.

Yasavolian was accused of failing to properly report his own personal income to the Internal Revenue Service for tax years 2003-2005 and knowingly underpaying his taxes. Prosecutors claimed he also understated his receipts and sales on the tax return for his business Quality Accounting Services during the same period. He allegedly omitted significant rental and other income, receipts and sales from the QAS tax returns, which in turn, permitted him to under-report his personal income.

Prosecutors claim that while he was knowingly under-reporting his income to the IRS, he told banks and other creditors that he was making significantly more income than what he reported to the IRS. He allegedly submitted false tax returns to secure financing to purchase real and personal property, representing to various creditors, including Citimortgage, Washington Mutual and West Coast Bank, that he made more than three times what he reported to the IRS.

“The defendant was an accountant and licensed tax preparer—a skilled professional who also had the knowledge to understand that such transgressions were in fact illegal and subject to criminal and financial penalties,” prosecutor Michelle Holman Kerin wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “His failure to abide by the criminal and civil tax laws and of his chosen profession warrant a low-end guideline range sentence of 12 months.”

His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.